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Interview Highlights

On his infant son as the "first enlightened person" he's met

I'm a very stressed person and I'm always living both in the past and future in the sense that I'm kind of feeling guilty for many things that I've done and I feel great anxiety for all the stuff that's gonna come. And suddenly when you have a baby or a child and you see how they can be 100 percent in the present. You know, they don't really care about what happened before. They could have cried for an hour but in one second you give them ice cream and they're there, they're enjoying the ice cream. Whatever happened is behind them.

So this ability to be in the present was something that I kind of discovered through my son. And I actively try to imitate it but I'm afraid I'm not very good at it.

On teaching his son about how to hide during rocket attacks in Israel

The moment that you hear the alarm, if you're in the middle of the street then you have 30 seconds, you know, to find a hiding or if you don't have a hiding to lie on the ground. And I was with my wife and son when the alarm went off and it was like the first time in his life that he was in a missile attack and we asked him to lie on the ground.

Book Reviews

'Suddenly': Surreal Stories From A Modern Master

And he said, "If it's too dirty to eat from it when something falls on it, then it's too dirty to lie on it." And you find yourself that you have kind of 25 seconds to convince your son to lie down. And you don't want to be stressful, you don't want to shout at him.

So I suggested to him a game called "Pastrami Sandwich," in which my wife lies on the ground and he lies on her and I lie on him and together we form this pastrami sandwich and he kind of liked it because it was warm and cozy. And after the missile attack, he asked me if I can promise him that there would be more missile attacks so we can play the game again.

On how his father, a Holocaust survivor, responded to his terminal cancer diagnosis

He really, really wanted to continue living, but at the same time, he felt that life had given him a fair deal. He died when he was 84. He survived the Holocaust, losing his sister and losing many people who were close to him. So I think my father, in many ways, he was kind of like a Yoda for me — giving me all kinds of lessons that were not always clear, but I always kept with me.

On the publication of the book and why it's not out in Israel or in Hebrew

I feel that there are many intimate details in the book that it's easier for me to share overseas.

Etgar Keret

When you publish a work of fiction, people can tell you that your book is boring or you books suck, but when you write about your family people can tell you that your family is boring or your family sucks. And for me, never publishing nonfiction before, this is something that is very, very stressful. And I feel that there are many intimate details in the book that it's easier for me to share overseas.

It's kind of like those stories that you feel comfortable to tell somebody in a bar or on a train, but you wouldn't tell your next door neighbor. So, I don't know, maybe one day I'll publish it in Israel, but right now it feels a little bit too scary and too personal.

Interview Highlights

On his infant son as the "first enlightened person" he's met

I'm a very stressed person and I'm always living both in the past and future in the sense that I'm kind of feeling guilty for many things that I've done and I feel great anxiety for all the stuff that's gonna come. And suddenly when you have a baby or a child and you see how they can be 100 percent in the present. You know, they don't really care about what happened before. They could have cried for an hour but in one second you give them ice cream and they're there, they're enjoying the ice cream. Whatever happened is behind them.

So this ability to be in the present was something that I kind of discovered through my son. And I actively try to imitate it but I'm afraid I'm not very good at it.

On teaching his son about how to hide during rocket attacks in Israel

The moment that you hear the alarm, if you're in the middle of the street then you have 30 seconds, you know, to find a hiding or if you don't have a hiding to lie on the ground. And I was with my wife and son when the alarm went off and it was like the first time in his life that he was in a missile attack and we asked him to lie on the ground.

Book Reviews

'Suddenly': Surreal Stories From A Modern Master

And he said, "If it's too dirty to eat from it when something falls on it, then it's too dirty to lie on it." And you find yourself that you have kind of 25 seconds to convince your son to lie down. And you don't want to be stressful, you don't want to shout at him.

So I suggested to him a game called "Pastrami Sandwich," in which my wife lies on the ground and he lies on her and I lie on him and together we form this pastrami sandwich and he kind of liked it because it was warm and cozy. And after the missile attack, he asked me if I can promise him that there would be more missile attacks so we can play the game again.

On how his father, a Holocaust survivor, responded to his terminal cancer diagnosis

He really, really wanted to continue living, but at the same time, he felt that life had given him a fair deal. He died when he was 84. He survived the Holocaust, losing his sister and losing many people who were close to him. So I think my father, in many ways, he was kind of like a Yoda for me — giving me all kinds of lessons that were not always clear, but I always kept with me.

On the publication of the book and why it's not out in Israel or in Hebrew

I feel that there are many intimate details in the book that it's easier for me to share overseas.

Etgar Keret

When you publish a work of fiction, people can tell you that your book is boring or you books suck, but when you write about your family people can tell you that your family is boring or your family sucks. And for me, never publishing nonfiction before, this is something that is very, very stressful. And I feel that there are many intimate details in the book that it's easier for me to share overseas.

It's kind of like those stories that you feel comfortable to tell somebody in a bar or on a train, but you wouldn't tell your next door neighbor. So, I don't know, maybe one day I'll publish it in Israel, but right now it feels a little bit too scary and too personal.

In his Tucson, Ariz., backyard, 10-year-old Linken Kay throws a ball for his dog, Harley.

The dog speaks only English. But Linken was raised speaking another language.

"Li atas salti en la naejo por preni la pilkon," Linken says.

What's that, now?

"I said, um, he was going to jump in to get the ball," Linken explains. "And he likes to jump in and get the ball."

Linken is a rarity: He's a native speaker of Esperanto.

More than hundred years ago, a Polish physician and inventor had an ambitious idea: Create a language that anyone could learn easily. The hope was to promote world peace through a universal tongue.

It took several decades, but eventually L.L. Zamenhof designed Esperanto.

Although the language hasn't become as popular as Zamenhof hoped — or brought world peace — it's estimated that anywhere between 200,000 and 2 million people speak the language worldwide. Devotees say Esperantists exist all over the globe, with especially large pockets in Europe, as well as China, Japan and Brazil.

i

In their Tuscon home, Linken and Greg Kay have shelves full of books in Esperanto, including these picture books. Stina Sieg/KJZZ hide caption

itoggle caption Stina Sieg/KJZZ

In their Tuscon home, Linken and Greg Kay have shelves full of books in Esperanto, including these picture books.

Stina Sieg/KJZZ

The popular language-learning platform Duolingo is even about to issue an Esperanto app.

But there are only about 1,000 native speakers, like Linken. Esperanto was his first language — and still the main one he uses with his dad, Greg Kay.

Greg fell for Esperanto when he was his late 20s and going to school in Japan.

"Having lived abroad, I realize that the language barrier is a significant barrier, and can create many misunderstandings," Greg explains.

He used Esperanto while traveling when he was younger, bicycling between Esperanto-speaking homes in Korea. He used a free hospitality network, called Pasporta Servo, which lists Esperanto speakers willing to open their homes to fellow Esperantists. Pasporta Servo still exists today.

"Thanks to Esperanto, I've met many people that I would have just passed by otherwise — many fascinating people," Greg says.

Marking The Centennial Of Esperanto Creator's Visit May 25, 2010

Esperanto creates a kind of "level playing field," because it's a second language for almost everyone who speaks it, says Humphrey Tonkin, an English professor at the University of Hartford in Connecticut. He taught himself Esperanto at age 14, and then used it to travel across Eastern Europe and beyond.

"The result is that you're kind of lifted out of your own cultural limitations," Tonkin says. "And you're really in an authentically international environment."

That was the hope of Esperanto's founder, Zamenhof. He wanted to bridge differences between people, especially religious differences, Tonkin says. Zamenhof was Jewish, and many of Esperanto's earliest adopters were also Jewish. They connected with this new language that emphasized equality, Tonkin says.

So many years later, the language has grown far beyond Europe's Jewish community, but hasn't taken off as Zamenhof envisioned. When Zamenhof died in 1917, Tonkin says he was "deeply disillusioned."

It's hard to know what it is about Esperanto that has kept it from blossoming, but Tonkin calls it a language of "low prestige," one that's still a bit hard to explain to those who've never learned it.

"When I say that I speak Esperanto, they say, 'What do you do that for?' since I appear to be a perfectly normal person in every other respect," he says. "Or they say, 'I heard about that once. That died, didn't it?' "

Not only has it not died, but Tonkin thinks it might actually be growing, though he says it's hard to gauge an accurate number of speakers.

Even if Esperanto's reach is static, the language has survived against some steep odds. The rise of English could have easily killed it off, Tonkin says. Or it could have faded away during both world wars, when its speakers were persecuted. But Esperanto kept going, and Tokin thinks idealism probably had a good part in it.

At this point, learning it is kind of, "dare I use the word — a utopian thing?" Tonkin says — especially since the world is full of problems.

"That's all the more reason for hanging on to those things that will make the world a better place," he says. "We just need to get together better, and maybe Esperanto is one of the ways we can do it."

Esperanto

Language

Hillary Clinton, in the first campaign speech for the 2016 Democratic presidential nomination, sounded a message of support for working families, calling for "a new era of prosperity" and pledging to support a constitutional amendment to overhaul campaign finance rules.

At a rally on New York's Roosevelt Island, she invoked the memory of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal, saying FDR brought "a wider and constantly rising standard of living" to all Americans, a promise, Clinton said, "that still sounds good to me."

The former First Lady, senator and secretary of state attacked the "trickle-down economics" that began with President Ronald Reagan and remains a mainstay of the Republican philosophy, calling it a failed policy.

"Democracy can't be just for billionaires and corporations," she said. "Prosperity and democracy are part of your basic bargain, too. You brought our country back. Now it's time, your time, to secure the gains and move ahead. And you know what? America can't succeed unless you succeed."

With former President Bill Clinton looking on, she promised to push for a rewrite of the tax code so that it rewards hard work, not quick equity trades or money stashed overseas.

She joked that: "There may be some new voices in the Republican presidential choir, but they are all singing the same thing — a song called 'Yesterday.' "

"These Republicans trip over themselves promising lower taxes and less regulations for wealthy corporations without any regard for what that will do to income inequality," she said.

Clinton called for gender equality and equality for sexual orientation.

She reminded her audience that she had been "in the situation room on the day we got bin Laden" and promised that "when our brave men and women come home from war, I'll see to it that they get not just the thanks of a grateful nation, but the care and benefits they deserve."

She also pledged to create a national infrastructure bank financed by bonds —nd idea that has been pushed by her former boss, President Obama.

On the issue of climate change, "one of the defining threats of our time ... Republicans will say 'I'm not a scientist.' Well, why don't they listen to those who are?" she asked rhetorically to loud applause.

Clinton was expected to fly next to Iowa.

Hillary Clinton